The Ponderosa, a sprawling Nevada cattle ranch, is home to the first family of television westerns - The Cartwrights. Patriarch Ben Cartwright (Lorne Greene) has raised his sons, Adam (Pernell Roberts), Hoss (Dan Blocker), and Little Joe (Michael Landon), into fine young men, but there are still many lessons and dangers to be faced in the largely untamed West of the mid 1800's.